Sunday, May 31, 2009

Garage Sale Revelation

After a very successful garage sale, we loaded our unsold items into the back of the van and headed to a consignment shop. Hoping to make even a couple bucks, I dropped off about ten items for them to price & make an offer. As the busy Saturday afternoon had them backed up, we headed to our favorite lunch spot for chicken nuggets and Sprite. I returned 30 minutes later and roamed the store, checking price tags to better estimate the offer I was about to receive. They called my name and when I walked up to the counter, I was told the following:

"We're declining all your items due to the clothes being more than a year old, and the styles being too mature."

I respond with a bubbly "Okay, thanks" but exited with a self-pity frown in my heart. They could have offered me a dollar for all items and I would have been thrilled. "Too mature"? Ouch. Granted, there were several items I had worn in high school and I hadn't worn anything since pre-Brad (2003), but I thought Gap jeans were timeless. Someone rummaging through the Goodwill racks will be pleased with my donations but I found myself chewing on the experience this morning during worship.

God showed me how He takes our battered, rusty, and broken leftovers and responds quite contrary to the logic of the human heart. I saw this provoking picture of how my soul was approached by Savior without much hope for a purpose or a future. Our culture tells us that we're just like those used clothes - old, irrelevant, without the right style or fit for Someone of significance. It would only "make sense" for us to be rejected by those who make us think their apparel has been deemed valuable and therefore, fit for service.

But God takes the donation - the gift, the sacrifice, the very ordinary offering - with wholehearted joy and acceptance and then places those items in the "Neiman Marcus" of His kingdom. He places price tags on our calling, our personality, our abilities and says they are beyond value. He displays our used and abused, our old age or our inexperience, our lacking or our over-qualification in a room with benches, where people can roam around us like a museum. Art deserves to be displayed. Beauty must received its recognition. The Glory of God is bright shining when we are admired as His redemption.

Jesus, redeem not only our souls but the very garments that make us who we are. Take what we believe is unusable and make it purposeful. Swirl your creative powers around the ugly, torn, and worn places of our heart and make us radiant, as we wear the priestly, royal robe of Jesus.

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Hi, I'm Heather!

Defined by the gospel.
Drives a minivan around Fort Worth, Texas.
Left-handed and holding a cup of coffee.
Recently engaged to cilantro.
Frequent break-ups with water.
Opposite of a wine snob.
Refuses to touch the bottom of lakes.
Gravitates towards serious conversations.
Surrounded by non-stop laughter.
Grateful runs deep and hopeful burns bright and this is my life.